Senior Sutton Roach (far right) talks to students about the Purdue chapter of the International Justice
Mission at the fall Purdue B-Involved fair on Memorial Mall. Photo by Mark Simons. Photo of Ann Marie Clark
(above) by Bobby Dorn.

Multiple perspectives

“It’s important to remember that we are
only in one specific mindset here in the
United States. We’re only exposed to so much
information, so we need to take into account
other people’s opinions and thoughts,” says
Adam Hassanein, a sophomore majoring in
political science who attended the 2015 Model
United Nations in Bogotá, Colombia.

The Model UN was also influential for
Caelum Mroczek, a freshman in political
science, confirming his choice to study in the
College of Liberal Arts. He hopes to make a
career in international relations, because he
sees divisions among people and cultures of
the world as the root of most major problems
today and throughout history.

Like Mroczek, Hassanein returned from
his international experience feeling optimistic
after meeting so many students from
around the world who are also committed to
working on global issues. Both students are
encouraged on campus by the faculty and staff
members who put in extra hours discussing
larger policy and government relations ideas
with students.

A passion for human rights

Some of those same faculty members areaddressing global challenges through theliberal arts curriculum. Standing up forhuman rights is a passion for professorslike Ann Marie Clark, associate professor ofpolitical science, Chris Yeomans, professorof philosophy, and Rebekah Klein-Pejšová,associate professor of history and JewishStudies. They teamed up to launch a newhuman rights minor starting in the fallof 2016, with support from Dean DavidReingold’s INNOVATE program, which helpsfund the development of new, forward-lookingmajors, minors, and certificate programs toenhance the undergraduate curriculum. Thegoal of the new minor is to help students studyglobal issues across traditional academicdisciplines on campus.

“We’re hoping it will establish a scholarlycommunity of people from Liberal Artsand also from other parts of Purdue wherepeople are doing interesting things that haverelevance to human betterment,” Clark says.“There are a lot of people at Purdue who aretrying to make a difference.”Clark’s scholarly focus is on how to makeactivists better at the work they do. She isworking with Purdue Libraries—and a teamof graduate students—to digitize and codeAmnesty International’s action bulletinssent out between 1975 and 2007. These briefcommuniqués are distributed by the globalhuman rights organization when it hears of aspecific and immediate human rights risk.

“It’s a rich trove of information,” she
says. “Just preserving [the documents] is
important. But hopefully we’ll eventually
know how to be more effective from studying
them,” she explains.

Battling climate change

As an attendee at the Paris Climate Conference
(COP21) in late 2015, Sarah Huang learned
in the field how the real work of indigenous
peoples can influence global environmental
governance. Huang, who majored in
environmental studies as an undergraduate at
Ursinus College, is now a doctoral student in
anthropology at Purdue, where she’s studying
perceptions of “local” food with immigrant
and refugee communities in Alaska.